Lets un-Green Renewable Energy

Renewable Energy seems to have an identity crisis. Lets talk wind farms for the time being. Renewable Energy has an environmental cost as well as a socio-economic one. Land is required, communities are impacted. There is an overall life cycle cost that has to be calculated. Development is intricately intertwined with Energy Access. Energy poverty causes ‘real’ poverty. Industries need power, coal is in abundance in India but again social issues and allocation matters have crippled the sector. Energy is geo-political and part of the securitization discourse.

Renewable energy needs structural support and real policy innovation. It needs to have a change of mind concerning the tone in which it is dealt currently in India. It is about energy, ultimately powering communities. Remember the joyful smile on the face of the old man when turbine powered bulb lights up in the film Swades?